


Steve, MY darling

by Merelina



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Creepypasta, Guilt, Haunting, Love, M/M, Nightmares, Possessive Behavior, mention of rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-22 13:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12483152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merelina/pseuds/Merelina
Summary: The walls have ears. And Eyes. And everything else too. In which Peggy comes back with a vengeance. She still wants that last dance and nobody will get in her way.





	Steve, MY darling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Menatiera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/gifts).



> Tnx @menatiera for this fantastic prompt:  
> Haunted Avengers Tower: your typical ghost story about how it’s funny at first then things escalate and it goes from alarming to life-threatening quickly. The haunting is focused on Steve and those closest to him, especially Bucky, and - PLOT TWIST: it’s the poltergeist of Peggy Carter who is completely unlike her once-alive self. She’s incredibly possessive and jealous and wants Steve for herself, so getting rid of Bucky (and breaking up the team so Steve can be all hers) is a must. (bonus points for established stucky)  
> No Major Character Death - except if that person comes back as ghost as well, then it's okay.

# Steve, MY darling

She locked her car, and started towards the elevator  
_I’m soo lucky! I’m soo lucky to intern here! The avengers! Captain America is really that buff as they make him to be on tv. Sooo dreamy! So sexy and just so nice. He didn’t even say anything about her flustered questions yesterday, he just answered them so calmly. Definitely a guy to get the hots for rawr… brr it’s cold here._  
“Right, girl”  
“What? Who said that? Where are you?” Why is there a face in the wall? The face looks like it’s drawn on the concrete wall of the parking garage. Simple eyes, a small crack in the concrete that looks like a nose, and a pencil-drawn mouth.  
“Come here sweetie.”  
_The face is smiling and… talking? What. The. Fuck? Is this the work of the lady they call the red witch? I better do as she asks if I want to keep this internship._  
The face looks friendly and familiar somewhere. “Good girl” it smiles again, but suddenly grabs her hand and drags her closer.  
“No, let go of my hand! I can’t…. no! NO! STOP! PLEASE SOMEONE! HELP! THE WALL IS…” A cold hand clamped over her mouth  
“Got ya, bitch. Thinking some real bad thoughts about my Stevie, were you? Not anymore sweetie. Not anymore.”  
The wall she was pulled up against suddenly gave way to her and she stumbled forward, hand still over her mouth. Too scared to think she tried to upright herself, but felt the concrete closing in on her. Her eyes flicked back to the ‘doorway’ and saw it close. I’m inside the wall.. I need to… I need air! “Please… I… air… need to….breathe”  
The face was still looking at her as she drew her final ragged breaths. The face was still smiling as she felt the darkness coming for her. 

\--------------------------------------------------------

Steve woke up slowly on a Sunday morning from the sun on his face. He turned his head to look at the space next to him in bed, and saw Bucky already awake, a laptop open on his lap.  
“Did you get any sleep at all after your nightmare last night?”  
“Good morning to you too, and no I didn’t. You know that’s no use, I’ll just have another nightmare.”  
“Buck… I wish…”  
“Yeah me too. But hey! I finally wrote some reports. You were right I should’ve done them a long time ago. Want to get up for breakfast and a run?”  
“Don’t change the subject… I was going to say; I wish you would get some help with your nightmares.”  
“No.”  
Sigh… “Bucky please, there are…”  
“NO!” Bucky looks at the wall on his left, staring into nothingness. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to sound angry. Just… no.”  
Another deep sigh. He didn’t want to push his Bucky too far. He got to see a Bucky nobody ever saw. The rest of the world saw Bucky as a merciless but good killer, an avenger, a happy looking man. Nobody ever saw the silent nightmares he endured, no one ever saw the tears of the immense regret he had over the kills he did for Hydra. No one ever saw how terrified Bucky was of turning into that monster again. Nobody and no one, but Steve. No one ever heard Bucky scream waking up from a nightmare and somehow no one wondered why. Or they did, but didn’t ask. 

When they rediscovered their feelings for each other, and started sleeping together again, Steve realized there were most definitely nightmares. When Bucky was still the Winter Soldier under Hydra control, he had nightmares also. But when he would wake screaming, the punishment for making a sound when he wasn’t allowed to, were severe. Some of the lashes and cuts he received actually left scars on his enhanced body, but most healed too quick to form scars. So he learned to stay silent, even in his nightmares. Steve however, noticed him tremble when they held each other at night.  
When he first noticed, he tried to gently wake Bucky up, but that didn’t go so well. Bucky woke up, immediately turned around, twisted his body on top of Steve’s and wrapped his hands around Steve’s neck and squeezed. It took him a couple of seconds to realize where he was and what he was doing. He said sorry a million times and still feels horrible about it. Steve doesn’t wake him up like that anymore. The only thing that can sooth Bucky into waking up from a nightmare is to gently rub his head. Gently stroke his face, softly speak his name, until he relaxes and wakes up, tears streaming down his face, completely silent. When he finally after a minute or 5 realizes Steve’s there, he holds on to Steve as if he’s the last lifeline he has. They often fall asleep like that. Or at least Steve falls back asleep, Bucky will just stay awake or suffer another nightmare. Steve has tried to get Bucky some help but… you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.

After they get up they go for a run in silence. Nothing needs to be said when you’ve been friends for that long. They enter avengers tower and come across an annoyed Pepper Potts in the hall. Nobody would ever know Pepper was annoyed unless you got to know her, she was, after all, very good at her job. Steve slows to a halt. “Hey Pepper, something wrong?”  
“Hey guys! Had a good run?”  
“Yeah sure” Bucky smiles.  
“And no nothing really wrong, just that our newest intern didn’t show up yet today. She seemed like a trustworthy one. I hope nothing happened.”  
Steve frowned at that. “Is that the girl I met yesterday? With all the flustered questions?” she seemed happy to be here. Have you tried calling her home? Or her cell?”  
“Yeah I called her cell, no answer. And there’s no home phone listed.” She sighs. “Ah well, we’ll see what she has to say for herself when she does get here. You guys seen Tony the last couple of days?”  
Bucky presses the elevator button and turns to Pepper. “I saw him yesterday, he wanted some more measurements for my new arm.”  
She rolls her eyes and sighs exasperated “New arm? Another one? He finally stopped making a million iron man suits, now he’s focused on making you a million arms? Honestly that man will drive me insane one day.”  
Bucky smiles, unsure of what to say. Pepper smiles at him. “I think he’s just trying to make thing up to you Bucky. He will never say it of course, but he is really sorry for all of it. He saw you as an enemy. The evil guy that murdered his parents. But I had a little… discussion of sorts with him, and now he really is sorry.”  
Bucky shrugs, but Steve smiles and mumbles “discussion…”  
“I’m sorry captain?” Pepper looks annoyed again.  
“Oh nothing” He smiles innocently. He remembers that discussion all too well. Bucky was still in cryosleep, so he didn’t hear it, but he’s pretty sure that everybody else in the new York did hear this ‘little discussion’ miss Potts was referring to. In the end it came down to Pepper pushing Bucky’s Hydra file in Tony’s face screaming “read it Tony. NOW!” before leaving an angry but very scared looking Tony behind. All Tony would say about it later was that ‘that woman is scary when she’s angry’. But he read the file, as Pepper so mildly suggested, and turned his opinion on Bucky around. He actively started searching for ways to help Bucky in a way that reminded Steve a lot of Howard when he got his teeth into something. In the end they found help from a most unexpected source to free Bucky of his mind controlling words. I mean who honestly thought they would get help from Hydra? So when Bucky got out of cryo, Tony had already had a new arm for Bucky to try. In fact he had several.

As the elevator stops on their living floor, they step out chatting about breakfast. Steve indicates to Bucky that he’s going for a shower first, Bucky nods and keeps talking to Pepper. They disappear into the kitchen. Steve takes a hot shower (Good god water pressure is soooo good in this time and age), and as he steps out of the shower, and sees written in the mist on the mirror: _Hey Steve <3_ he smiles. “Bucky” he grins, _love you too. That guy honestly. For such a sharp-minded, stone cold killer you can be such a dorky sappy sweetheart._ He uses his finger to write his reply underneath, knowing that Bucky will go for a shower next. _< 3 U 2_  
He gets dressed and as he exits his room, he sees Bucky is in the kitchen with Pepper, Tony and Natascha. As he joins them for breakfast, Bucky gets up for his shower. Steve smiles, thinking back to the mirror as he eats some cereal.

Bucky gets out of the shower. (Good water pressure is another thing that goes on the list of good things from this century) He rarely looks at the mirror, as he doesn’t like the face staring back at him, but as he grabs a towel his eyes catches words written on the misty mirror. When he looks up, he freezes. All the warmth provided by the run and shower, are gone in an instant. 

_Killer  
257_

_“What the hell?” Who knows this? Killer yeah okay everybody knows he’s a killer, but 257? He didn’t even think Hydra knew how many exactly..._ A horrifying thought slams into him. _Steve. Steve was here just before him. O god Steve knows how much kills he.._ he gets dressed fast and runs to the kitchen. Tony and Natascha are still there but no Steve. “where’s Steve” he practically growls. Shit. “sorry, where’s Steve” he asks again in a more normal tone. Nat looks worried and slowly says: “he went out for some shopping I think.” She narrows her eyes slightly. “why?”  
“I need to talk to him about something… important. Thanks I’ll wait till he gets back”

After Bucky leaves the kitchen, Natascha decides to go and ask him what that was about. She figured she gave him enough space for her to find him and ask. He seemed stressed to put it mildly. She suddenly stops. Every well-trained instinct she has, tells her something or somebody is watching her. She turns fast, but no one is there.  
“Bitch” it’s not more than a whisper, and if Natascha would still be walking she probably would have missed it. She suddenly felt goosebumps on her arms, as if a cold wind swept past her. She involuntarily shivered.  
“Where are you? Come out to play with me and say that to my face” her voice was low and threatening.  
Pepper rounds the corner and lets out a squeak. “O my goodness Nat, you scared the hell out of me. Are you all right?” seeing Natascha’s ready to fight attitude she looks around too. “Anything… bad? Here?”  
“No Pepper. Sorry to scare you, I thought I heard something, but apparently I was wrong.” She forces a smile. The voice that spoke was not Pepper’s but there was no one else around. She shrugs her shoulders apologetically at Pepper. “Trained killers sometimes get the heebie jeebies I guess”  
Pepper smiles “Not strange if you look at the things you guys do for a living. All the things you see, and saw in the past, you even more so. Would you like some tea Nat?”  
“Why not” they smile and walk to the kitchen. She would find Bucky later.

 

Bucky is driving himself crazy waiting for Steve and thinking about the message on the mirror. He knows there is only one thing that could clear his mind, so despite him being freshly showered he heads down to the training floor. He finds it deserted, just what he wanted. He puts on some loud music to drown out his own thoughts and starts punching the bags. After a couple of songs the music suddenly stops, just as a cold wind breezes past him. He turns towards the door and is surprised to find it closed. If he’s alone, who turned down the music? Suddenly a crackle comes through the speakers, turning into the sound of white noise. _What the hell? This crap still happens in this century?_

_killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer_

_Did I really hear that?_

_257 kills 257 257 257 killer murderer how do you sleep at night_

_I’m going crazy._ He runs to the music set and turns it off. He shivers from the cold. _Wait. Why am I cold?_  
“Ja… Jarvis? Ehm I can ask you things right?”  
“Yes Sargent Barnes you can. How may I help you today?”  
“Right. Why is it so freaking cold here?”  
“Room temperature is average Sargent, a little more since you are training.”  
“No it’s freezing in here, you’re wrong. And what’s wrong with the sound thingy?”  
“I assure you the room is a pleasant 64 degrees Fahrenheit sir. Or 18 degrees Celsius, whichever you prefer. May I suggest you let yourself get looked at by a physician? Feeling cold is a clear symptom of fever. And concerning the sound system; It seems to be functioning properly”  
“I don’t have a fever. I think.” As he presses a hand to his forehead, the sound system suddenly turns back on again.

killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer killer

 

“Jarvis still think there’s nothing wrong with the sound system?”  
“It still seems to be functioning normal Sargent.”

Do you honestly believe the great Captain America, could ever love a cold hearted killing  
machine such as you? Ha! 

“Stevie… he…”  
Who are you kidding, Asset? Killer! 257! And that’s not even counting the ones you tortured into madness and suicide. Let me help you remember Mary Lanksy.

“Mary La… o god no, shut up!

Name rings a bell then. Do you remember how you burned her with your red hot burning metal fingers? Left scars all over her face, that. Those alone caused her to never go outside again.

“I said shut up!” His arms hang helpless besides his body, hands clenched in tight fists.

And we’re not even talking about how many times you raped her. Or how many times you scraped that knife over her skin.

“SHUT UP!” he slowly sinks to the ground

Did you know that every time she moved her knee she could feel that knife tip you broke off  
in her? Every step she took was pain!

“No STOP! I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I'm so”

Monster! You shouldn’t be alive! You are a freak made up out of the parts of a man Stevie  
once knew as Sargent Barnes. You have no right to

“BUCKY STOP LOOK AT ME! Someone shakes him. BUCKY! Please! Come back buddy, come back to me!”  
“St.. Steve? I… no keep away from me!” He rips himself free and crawls away from Steve as fast as he can. “Don’t touch me, I’m poison.”

“Bucky… you’re having some kind of fever. Let me help you. Please. Just let me help.“  
“I don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve you or this. Any of this.” The smallest of sobs is heard in the quiet room. He closes his eyes to stop these stupid tears, but when he opens them Steve is there. Steve is holding him, carrying him? _Why is Steve carrying him?_ It’s the last thought he has before he doesn’t remember anything anymore.

He wakes up in bed, a sleeping Steve in a chair next to him holding his hand, a Natascha sitting in a chair on the other side of his bed wide awake looking intently at him.  
“Welcome back Bucky. How you feeling? Well I guess super soldiers can actually fall ill, and when they do they get super sick. Your fever ran up to 113 degrees.”  
He tries to answer but there’s just a croak coming out of his mouth. He feels Steve’s hand give his a light squeeze. “You want some water Buck?” He nods and receives a glass of water. As he tries to get up, his head explodes in pain, and he sees stars flash in front of his eyes. He lets himself fall back with a groan and he shuts his eyes tight. Steve is there with a cool hand on his head, that almost immediately makes the stars disappear. “Easy. Here…”  
Nat’s voice is closer as she asks: what were you hearing down there? Jarvis said you asked if the sound system malfunctioned…?”  
“There was a voice… I knew that voice but my memories are spotty at best so no idea where I knew her from. She told me… things.” He shivers. Steve frets over him with another blanket but he and Nat look at each other. They both saw Bucky down there, crying on the floor, fists in his face, whispering I’m sorry over and over again, before passing out. They got him into medbay immediately but no one really knew what to do. Everything seemed to function normally in Bucky’s body except for the fact he was running a fever so high, anyone else would have died about 5 degrees before that.  
“Maybe that fever was cooking your brain and caused a delirium?” Steve mused out loud.  
“Yeah maybe….” Bucky doesn’t sound convinced..  
Nat suddenly sits up “you were acting weird before you went down there. You came into the kitchen practically growling asking for Steve, you looked pale then.”  
_The mirror_ “Steve did you..” a sigh. “Did you write on the mirror?  
“I answered your note? I mean it was sweet but if you didn’t write it…. Then who did?”  
“Sweet? It was sweet? What do you mean it was sweet!?” Bucky started to get up from the bed, but Steve pushed him back. “Yeah Buck, it was sweet. What did you see in it then?”  
“It said 2…” Suddenly he realises what he was about to say.  
“To what? It told you to what Buck?”  
“Ehm I don’t ehm know anymore” It was an obvious lie, but Steve knew the face Bucky was pulling and it said _don’t ask._  
“well ok then. Get some rest, we’ll figure this out when you’re better.”

 

That night, Bucky, thankfully sleeps peacefully for a change. Steve doesn’t sleep well at all. Every move Bucky makes, every sigh, every twitch from his fingers, wakes Steve up. At three he gives up trying to sleep all together, and spends time doing his favourite thing; watching Bucky sleep and drawing him asleep. As he sits still with his drawing pad on his lap, trying to decide what to draw, he feels the blankets shift over his legs. At first he doesn’t think anything of it, but then it dawns on him. _Nobody in this bed is moving._ A flash of fear grips his heart as he rips the blankets of his legs. There is nothing there. _Then how? What moved the sheets?_ Before he has time to muse over this, Bucky stirs, in what will obviously turn out to be another nightmare. Steve tries to calm him before it really starts, and just when he thinks it’s working, Bucky’s skin becomes ice cold in a matter of seconds, his breath comes out in puffs of white smoke.  


> “Killer. You’re nothing but a common killer, a weapon. Get away from me Bucky”. Steve looks at him in utter disgust. “S.. Steve? What did I do? Why…”  
>  “What did you do?” Steve laughs derisively “What did you do? God Bucky I read Hydra’s files on your murders. I thought I could see you as my Bucky again but,… You are a monster. The files say nothing of mind control Bucky. It was you. You willingly murdered those people. 257 times you willingly, smilingly ripped people’s life out of their chests.”  
>  “No. Steve. I remember them, but I couldn’t do anything to stop this. They made me do… please Steve don’t leave.” He was crying now, freezing, alone in a cell, Steve’s back turned to him.  
>  “You. Are. Not. Human. You FREAK!” he walks out slamming the cell door shut.  
>  Bucky begs and screams and he’s so cold, so very very cold. A sudden fear comes rushing. They’re freezing him again. No. god please no! NO! 

“no” Bucky whispers, waking up from his nightmare.  
“Bucky? Are you awake? Here with me buddy?” Steve’s worried face appears before him. Worried for him. Bucky lets the breath he didn’t knew he was holding go. _Nightmare. Just a nightmare. Breathe. Just Breathe._ After a moment he looks at Steve again and just as he’s about to answer something along the lines of ‘I’m fine’ he sees fear beside the worry in Steve’s eyes.  
“Shit. What did I do Steve? Did I hurt you?”  
“What? No, no you didn’t. it’s fine, we’re fine. You okay?”  
“Then what’s wrong?” he sits up, looking around, seeing no threat.  
“It’s just… the blankets moved.”  
“the blankets moved” he raises an eyebrow. “hoo scary. They tend to move when there’s people underneath them Stevie” a sarcastic smirk creeping on his face.  
A deep sigh. “Do you have any idea how completely still you lie when you sleep Buck? I do ‘cause I was awake, drawing y.. something. I didn’t move either. The blankets moved on their own.”  
“on their own?” the smirk widening into a grin. “wow Stevie you need to sleep, you’re hallucinating or something.” His grin suddenly dropping, he puts his hand on Steve’s forehead. “I didn’t give you that weird fever did I?” Steve’s head felt normal however. He let his hands slip down to Steve’s cheek. “Look Stevie, you go get some sleep. I’ll keep an eye on things. On you.” After a little smile he says “and on the blankets too.”  
“Har di Har Buck.” He yawns, feeling suddenly very tired. “Fine. Keep a good eye on those blankets Buck, before they grab me. Don’t want the newspapers to read the great captain America, grabbed by blankets.” They laugh as Steve settles in bed, his head on Bucky’s lap. With Bucky’s fingers running through his hair, he soon drops off to sleep.

> “Rogers! Over here! You made it, just in time for the dance to start.”  
>  “P… Peggy?”  
>  “Were you expecting someone else, Rogers? If so, I can leave? Her eyebrow raised in sarcasm. She loved watching Steve squirm so apologetically.  
>  “What? No! no one else, just you and me. You’re going to teach me to dance right?”  
>  “Right you are.” Despite her being smaller, she steers him inside, taking the lead. That’s my Peggy he thinks smilingly, letting himself be pushed inside. The room is full of happy soldiers and their ladies, dancing away. As the evening proceeds, Steve learns he is not half as bad as he thought he would be, Peggy gets closer to him at almost every dance, letting him feel her round firm breasts against his chest, her warm hands are somehow everywhere without it looking too sexual. She leads his hands down to her hips with a smile on her perfect, red lips. He dreamed about those lips, so many nights. And when the night is done he kisses her. The feel of her warm wet mouth on his stirs something deep inside him. “Steve?” Bucky’s hand is on his shoulder. “Bucky? But you fell and..” 

He wakes up in confusion, his head still on Bucky’s lap. Bucky is staring out of the window, a million miles away. “Had fun with Peggy? You said her name a couple of times, and you were smiling.” A small smile plays on his lips.  
“I finally learned how to dance” he stretches lazily, smiling.

After breakfast they go for a run together, after which Steve has a training session with Clint. When Steve arrives in the training room, Clint is just finishing up a conversation with a member of staff. The girls walks away as Steve approaches, and as she walks past him he can’t help but think how much her lips look like Peggy’s.  
“Hey cap. You look happy.”  
“I had a good dream”  
Clint smiles “good dream huh? Good dream or ‘good dream’?”  
“I don’t know what you mean Hawkeye” Steve does his best to look innocent, failing miserably. It invokes a laugh from Barton. A laugh that suddenly stops. “hey you all right?” Steve turns, as Barton is talking to someone behind him, seeing nothing. Barton walks past him, turning the corner the girl just passed. Steve follows him, and almost runs into him as Barton stopped directly around the corner staring at the wall. On the wall where Barton is staring is a bloody spot. The rest of the long hallway is empty. “What the hell? Cap where did she go? And what is that doing there?” he points at the blood on the wall.  
Steve looks around, up and everywhere but the girl is gone. They call Tony to ask if he can see anything on the cameras. But a confused Tony comes back with an even more confusing answer.  
“she just vanished. Into thin air. There she is one second and the next there’s… an empty hallway. Jarvis checked the files, no alterations have been made. I can’t … explain this. I hate things I can’t explain.” Tony looks like he means it too. Steve puts a hand on his friend’s shoulder in support, then turns to Barton. “What did you see? Why did you call after her if she was all right?”  
“She turned the corner, stopped suddenly and it looked like… like somebody pulled her around the corner by her blouse. And when I turned the corner I saw… I think she disappeared into the wall. Somehow.” He looks unhappy at his own story. “I don’t know what I saw…It’s just weird.”  
Steve frowns, and turns back to Tony. “What behind this?” he knocks on the wall.  
Tony’s answer is as always correct but over the top. “Isolation, soundproofing as it is against the training room, another brick wall, spackle and paint. There also may be some wiring and pipes running…”  
“Tony” Steve interrupts him, “what room is on the other side of this wall?”  
“Oh! The little ladies room” They check, but there is nothing there, not even a speck of paint chipped loose. Jarvis tells them the blood matches that of miss King, and that after a thorough search through his camera files, she did not leave the building. Indeed, she is not seen on any footage after she turned the corner of the training room. A search party is set up, but even in three days of extensive searching she isn’t found. Until Tony, decides to break out the wall she disappeared in. Then they find her, encased in isolation material, her face contorted in a silent scream, but otherwise no visible signs of trauma to her body. Where the blood came from is a mystery, just as much as how she got into the wall in the first place. Tony is shaken up about it for days, and disappears in his lab where he tries to find a reasonable explanation for everything by sciencing everything about it. Together with Dr. Banner they test the isolation, the wall, the camera system, they even try to invent a way to get someone into a wall without breaking it. But all to no avail. When Wanda returns from her holiday, she tries to help but even her considerable powers can’t do this. Smashing bodies into things yes, but putting them inside walls without even leaving a scratch?

Some weeks go by, and normal life returns to the tower. Even Tony eventually lets it fall to the back of his mind, as he is faced with a new problem. People are complaining about sudden gusts of wind, others complain about certain rooms feeling very cold, or sudden drops in temperature, sometimes even dropping so far as they can see their breath come out of their mouths in white smoke. It mostly seems to focus around certain people. Around Steve and Bucky to be exact. Most cold spots are felt when they’re around somewhere in the vicinity. All though Steve never feels cold himself, he sees Bucky shiver quite often. At first he thinks Bucky is ill again, but after a while he realises that’s not it.

Bucky still doesn’t like to train alone since he got ill, so he trains with anyone he finds willing. There aren’t many, as everyone has a certain fear for him. Nat is always willing to train thankfully, though he always has to be careful not to hit too hard. She can handle herself, but she is physically not enhanced like Bucky or Steve. One day after training they walk out together until their ways part. As soon as Bucky turns left where Nat goes right, a shiver runs down his spine. He shakes it off, telling himself to man up when he gets this undeniable feeling someone is watching him. He turns another corner, spins on his heels and looks around the corner into an empty hallway. _I’m losing it_ he thinks to himself. He shakes his head and turns around, when suddenly an ice-cold grips his wrist and pulls his towards the wall. To his surprise, his hand passes straight through the wall. The grip on his wrist feels like it is on fire and yet cold. He knows that feeling all too well. _Cryo_ his panicked mind thinks. The warriors instinct, enhanced by the serum, kicks in. With his left arm he punches the wall next to where his right hand is vanishing in it, at the same time pulling his right arm back. The ice cold grip let’s go of his wrist and he falls backwards. He catches his footing, and stands battle-ready, in complete silence, listening to his well-tuned instincts. He hears the softest of whispers, coming from the wall. “Did you really think I’d let you have my Steve, you murderous monster?” his heart almost stops as he recognizes the voice from the training room. “WHO ARE YOU BITCH!” he screams at the wall, but there is no answer. He hears people running towards him, and as Tony and Steve reach him they see the winter soldier, ready for battle, next to two holes in the wall the size of his fists. The skin on his right wrist is blistering and blue greyish in colour. He looks so much like the winter soldier, Steve slowly steps towards him. “Buck? Bucky?”  
“Steve, someone… something just grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the wall.” Saying it makes him realize how idiotic that sounds and he looks at Steve. “I know that sound weird but I swear to you.”  
Behind them Tony barks: “Jarvis show camera footage of the last minutes in this hallway.”  
The camera picture shows Bucky walking into the screen, him suddenly stopping, turning towards the wall and… his right hand disappearing into the wall. Tony stops the footage and they stare in disbelieve at the picture. Steve is the first to recover. “What the name of everything holy is happening here?” No one answers. Tony lets the footage run again, and they see Bucky freeing himself with his metal arm, and themselves running onscreen. As Tony studies the footage again, Steve takes Bucky’s hand and carefully looks at his wrist. “It looks like second degree burns, but that colour is weird”  
“It’s called frostbite Steve,” Bucky grits his teeth “and it hurts like a bitch”  
“I’m taking you to medbay, the rest can wait.”  
“The hell it can Stevie!” Bucky hisses through the pain “there is a.. a something in our walls and it’s eating people and you’re worried about a little frostbite.”  
Tony looks up from his screen. “A something? An accurate description I suppose. Anyway, moving on! People tend to remember more than they realize at first. What did you hear? Smell? Feel? In that order please.”  
“What did I… the voice from the training room, it was her. I’ve been racking my brain over where I heard that voice before but I don’t remember it.”  
“What did she say?”  
“She said: Did you really think I’d let you have my Steve, you mu..ddy rat.” After a sad smile he softly admits “not muddy rat, she said murderous monster. Did you really think I’d let you have my Steve, you murderous monster. That’s what she said.” He studies a spot on the floor.  
Steve’s hand suddenly warms his face “god Bucky, who says such a thing?”  
A derisive smile appears on Bucky’s face as he almost sneers “half the world maybe?” and softly he adds “including me”.  
“Oh for god’s sake Barnes!” Tony lets the screen disappear with a snap. “Even I, with my grief-riddled mind realize by now, you are not a killer. The winter soldier killed them, not you! So stop being the sad clown of the party and get with the program.” Tony angrily stomps off, calling for Jarvis to check for temperature fluctuations as he turns the corner.

As Bucky is getting treated for frostbite on his wrist, Steve is sitting beside him in silence.  
“please take my mind of this Stevie. Tell me.. tell me about the dream you had this morning. Tell me about the Peggy Carter of your dreams”  
Steve embellishes certain details and leaves out other facts as he speaks of his dream. “… well, you know what Peggy was like” he smiles in fond memory.  
“Well..”  
“Well what?”  
“I don’t really. I know what I know about her from what I heard from you in the past 6 months. I don’t really remember her to be honest. Sorry Stevie.”  
“You really don’t? She was quite the personality. I think we have some old war footage of her, Jarvis?”  
“Certainly captain Rogers” comes the immediate reply. “shall I show it on the wall beside you?”  
Bucky grits his teeth in pain, “sure why not”  
As they watch the mute, black-and-white film, Bucky slowly but certainly realizes he knows the voice of Peggy Carter. In fact he heard her voice not too long ago whispering to him from the wall his hand was stuck in. “Steve? Jarvis? Do we have any footage that isn’t mute?”  
“Of course Sargent Barnes” Jarvis plays a newer clip of film, in colour this time, with a clearly older Peggy Carter as she is giving a speech. As soon as Bucky hears her voice, he is certain. “It’s her Stevie.”  
“Yeah I know.”  
“No. It’s her in the walls. She pulled me in and whispered to me. She’s the one that screamed at me in the training room. She’s.. Peggy, it’s her Stevie.”  
“A ghost would certainly explain these things” Tony muses  
“He says as if he’s deals with ghosts daily” Steve sarcastically answers.  
“well, no not daily but… I have dealt with a ghost before. I’ll call these brothers that helped me before and ask for advice.”  
“I can’t believe…”

 

“Peggy? Are you there?” Steve sits on his bed, alone. This was the second advice Tony’s guys gave. The first advice was to burn and salt her bones, but Peggy was cremated so that was useless. The second advice was talk to her, try to convince her to leave. ‘go into the light’ that kind of thing. Steve was still not entirely convinced about this ghost thing, but everybody else seemed on board with it so he just went with the flow. And now he was sitting here, on the side of his bed, calling Peggy. Suddenly a chill ran down his spine, as a cold hand landed on his shoulder. “Steve. You owe me a dance.” He turns himself around in one fast go. Before him stands Peggy, her always so vibrant eyes, now look cold, as if someone turned off the colour. Her beautiful curved lips that always looked so ‘kissable’ to Steve, now have a decided bitterness is smeared across them. Her lively way of moving, now seems jerky and rigid.  
“Wow Peggy it’s…” he was going to say ‘really you’ but it wasn’t really her. So he settles for “you’re here.”  
“Of course I’m here. Where else would I be then with you Steve?” she looked mildly irritated.  
“Peggy…there is no easy way to say this. Soo I’m just going to throw it out there… you’re not alive anymore, Peg”  
“Oh Rogers, still don’t know how to talk to a woman I see.” A thin, creepy smile played across her lips. “No matter, you don’t need to talk when you dance.”  
“Peggy no listen stop. Peggy!” She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him in a dancing position. There was no arguing with her, she just pulled him in an embrace. One arm around his middle, the other on his chest. The second her hands touched Steve, a flaming cold spreads through his insides and chest. He gasps at first but as the pain gets worse he struggles to get out from her grip. The smile across her lips has nothing to do with love anymore, it’s pure venom that shines from her eyes. “You’re mine now, Steve. No one else to take you. No one else.”  
“Peggy” he gasps, a final try. Somewhere in the distance he hears someone scream in pain, it takes him some time to realise it’s his own scream. Another’s scream joins his, and suddenly the pain stops. He’s on the ground, his head and shoulders against the wall. He stops screaming, the other doesn’t. It’s almost as if the other’s scream is ignites a fire in him. Bucky. Someone is hurting Bucky. Peggy is hurting Bucky! Faster than he ever has been, he’s up on his feet, looking for Bucky. Something that once was Peggy, now furious and demonic looking, is dragging Bucky at his feet inside the wall. His metal hand making deep scratches in the floor, his other hand helplessly clawing at something, anything to hold on to, but finding nothing. Steve dives for that hand, grabs hold of it and pulls. The look of despair in the eyes of the love of his life, leaves him with no room for words. There is just the overwhelming will to save Bucky. Slowly, inch by inch they start to pull Bucky back out of the wall. A wailing screech like nails on chalkboard comes from the wall. Suddenly she let’s go, and Steve fall backwards, Bucky in his lap.  
“WHY do you let this monster come between us Steve? Do you know how many people he killed Steve? Do you? Shall I tell you what he did to some of them before he killed them? Shall I tell you of Mary Lanksy and what fun he had with her?”  
“I DON’T FUCKING CARE! That isn’t him anymore Peggy”  
“Then what is he now?” a derisive smile across her face, “what’s left of your friend, hmm?”  
“What he is now? He’s..” Why is it so hard to put into words what you feel?  
“Yes? He’s what? Ha you don’t even know what he is.”  
_Past, present, what does it matter when you have the love of your life beside you?_ he doesn't realize he spoke his thoughts out loud  
“Stevie. I…” Bucky looks at him.  
“You mean that” Peggy looks defeated at him. “Then what was I to you?”  
“My first love, the one that got away, the one I’ll never forget. But Peggy… you you’re dead sweetheart. You need to go.”  
“Promise me you won’t forget?”  
“Never Peg. Never.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tnx for reading this! I had fun writing this! And for those wondering: those two brothers at the end might just be called Sam and Dean :-)


End file.
